Laminated hockey stick



Sept. 25, 1951 F. J. ZUPANICK 2,559,395

LAMINATED HOCKEY STICK Filed June 16, 1948 Patented Sept. 25, 1951 LAMINATED HOCKEY STICK Frank J. Zupanick, Erie, Pa., assignor to Lovell Manufacturing Company, Erie, Pa., 2. corpora tion of Pennsylvania Application June 16, 1948, Serial No. 33,401

2 Claims.

Ice hockey sticks have very exacting requirements. The blade and handle must have high impact resistance to sustain the shocks of body checking and-the impacts of the puck and other sticks. The stick must also be flexible or resilient to give a snap to the puck in shooting. The player ordinarily leans on the handle during shooting so as to arch the handle and obtains additional snap from the resilience or whip of the handle. The lateral flexibility of the blade must be such that the player can feel the puck he is carrying. Some players step on the upper edge of the blade to twist it relative to the handle and adjust the loft to their individual requirements.

Heretofore these requirements have been met solely by carefully selected one-piece bent wood air dried rock elm sticks with the edge grain (the grain resulting from cutting parallel to the length of the log and crosswise of the annular rings) parallel to the face of the blade. After the billets were selected, from 25-30% of the sticks were lost in bending and an additional 15-20% were not usable after finishing. Of the sticks which passed the factory tests, about half failed to give satisfactory performance in service.

Other woods are not satisfactory for one-piece bent wood sticks. Maple is too heavy and has insuflicient life. Hickory is too heavy. Ash, in the thin sections required for blades, is too brittle. Kiln dried wood is too brittle.

It has been proposed to make hockey sticks out of plywood with crosswise grain in alternate plies. Plywood is unsatisfactory both in flexibility and impact strength. As soon as one ply breaks, the stick fails. No satisfactory plywood stick has ever been made.

Two-piece sticks have been made, e. g., a handle of ash joined to a blade of rock elm. These sticks do not compare with the one-piece bent wood sticks, but many have been used due to the scarcity of suitable bending wood.

This invention is intended to produce a hockey stick which will uniformly have two to thre' times the impact resistance and flexibility of the best one-piece bent wood edge grain rock elm sticks i. e., the one-piece sticks which pass all of the factory tests.

These results are obtained by a laminated wood construction in which the grain of each lamination runs in the same direction and lengthwise of the blade and handle. The stick is a two-piece stick in that the handle is made separate from and joined to the blade.

In the drawings, Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a hockey stick; Fig. 2 is an enlarged longitudinal section through the blade; Fig. 3 is a fragmentary enlarged longitudinal section through'the handle; and Fig. '4 is a bottom plan of a conventional joint between the handle and blade.

Referring to the drawings, I indicates the handle, 2 the blade, and 3 a tapered tongue and groove joint between the handle and blade. The dimensions of these parts'are or may be conven tional.

The handle and blade are made separately of laminations in the plane of the stick in which the grain in each lamination runs lengthwise with the face grain (the grain generally parallel to the annual rings) on the sides. In a typical handle, there may be nine laminations 4, each having the grainrunning lengthwise of the handle with the face grain of the wood on the sides 5. -In a typical blade, there may be five laminations 6, each having the grain running lengthwise of the blade with the face grain on the sides 1.

The laminations are bonded together in sheets of convenient size under heat and pressure by a waterproof adhesive such as a phenolic resin. Green wood may be used for the laminations. No seasoning or drying is necessary. After finishing the sheets to provide the necessary taper of the handle and blade, the handle and f blade are cut out of the sheets and joined by the tongue and groove or other suitable joint which is likewise glued with a waterproof adhesive. The taper on the blade is from the bottom to- .ward the top and from the heel toward the toe. If the blade is made of five laminations, the upper edge may have a thickness of two laminations. The amount of taper, of course, depends upon the design of the stick. The taper produces feather edges of the laminations indicated at 8. In the handle, the outer laminations terminate in feather edges short of the blade. In the blade, the outer laminations terminate in feather edges short of the toe. In both the handle and blade there are at least two laminations in the central part.

The completed stick is uniformly better than the best one-piece edge grain rock elm bent wood stick. It has from two to three times the flexibility, impact resistance, and life. If one of the .outer laminations checks off, the stick is still usable. In a one-piece stick, as in a conventional cross grain plywood stick, a crack follows through and renders the stick useless. The greater flexibility improves the shot making or playing qualities of the stick.

No special care is required in selecting the wood. The laminations are substantially all usable. Nor is any seasoning required. This makes the stick easier to manufacture.

The inner laminations of the handle may be made of lighter wood such as birch. The outer laminations may be of a heavier and tougher Wood such as maple. This permits grading of the weight of the stick. Althoughmaple is not satisfactory for a one-piece bent Wood stick, in the laminated construction, it produces a stick superior to the best rock elm.

While a bent wood stick must have the edge grain on the playing faces, the .laminatedstick produces superior strength/flexibility, impact reon the playing faces.

What I claim as new is:

1. A wood ice hockey stick having a laminated handle having laminations joined under heat and 'pressure'by a waterproof resinadhesive-the'handlelaminations having fiat abutting surfaceslying in the planeof the stick withthe grain'of the Wood running :lengthwise of the stick-and the face grain on thesidesofthe handle, a laminated. blade joined tothe hand1e,:saidblade having laminationsjoined under heatand pressure bya waterproof resin adhesive, the blade laminatins having flat abutting surfaces lying in the plane of the stick with the grain of the wood '15 sistance, and playing qualities with the face grain V ness from the heel toward the toe and from the bottom toward the top and terminating in feather edges short of the toe.

2. A wood ice hockey stick having a handle joined to a blade, said blade having a plurality of laminations each having flat abutting surfaces extending in the plane of the blade with the grain of the wood running lengthwise of the blade, with the face grain of the wood on the playing faces of the blade, and the fiat surfaces of the laminations joined under heat and pressure by a waterproof adhesive, the blade having at least two laminations in the central part and outer laminations thereon, the outer laminations being tapered in thickness from the heel toward the toe and from the bottom toward the top of the blade and terminating in feather edges short of the toe.

FRANK J. ZUPAN'ICK.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 485,068 Great Britain May 13, 1938 

